


a kind of grace that shades everything

by victoria_p (musesfool)



Category: Captain America (2011)
Genre: F/M, First Time, M/M, Multi, Pining, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 02:29:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesfool/pseuds/victoria_p
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don't you understand, Steve? You don't have to choose."</p>
            </blockquote>





	a kind of grace that shades everything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tam_Cranver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tam_Cranver/gifts).



> Thanks to Mousapelli for reading it over on such short notice. And thanks to Angelgazing and DevilDoll for the encouragement.

Love is not inevitable —  
when we meet what can't be named, that we choose to love  
is a kind of grace that shades everything.  
"Sleeping Blue" by Sheri Benning

Peggy is impatient. Her mother always told her that patience was a virtue and that young ladies who weren't virtuous didn't marry fine young men, and Peggy's well aware of how far being virtuous would have got her in this world--she'd probably still be in London, pining for her boy to come home safe, but she wouldn't be doing it in the company of Captain America and his Howling Commandos.

She's impatient when they go out on missions and she can't accompany them; she's impatient when the war drags on and nothing they do seems to end it quickly. At the moment, she's impatient because she and Captain Rogers--Steve (she can call him Steve in her head if she bloody well pleases, thank you very much)--have been dancing around each other for months now, and she is tired of having to make the first move, and every move thereafter.

"You can't push him," Bucky says to her one night after they have, perhaps, had one too many drinks, and Steve is off being briefed by Colonel Phillips on their next assault. "He's stubborn as a mule once he digs his heels in." She's not even sure anymore what they were talking about. Seeking advice from Sergeant Barnes is a terrible idea and she'll have to remember to blame the whiskey for it in the morning. He gives her a wicked grin, the kind that probably works very well on the girls he meets, and says, "You don't need to wait around for him, Agent Carter. I'd be perfectly happy to--"

"You don't want to finish that sentence, Sergeant," she says as crisply as she can. "I thought he was your best friend."

"Call me Bucky. And I'd just be doing him a favor, letting you take out all your," he gives her a leering once-over, "aggression on me."

"I suggest you invest in a dictionary and relearn the definition of the word favor, Sergeant," she answers repressively, despite the frisson of desire that shivers through her.

"Do one for you any time," he says, saluting her with his glass. But then the leer falls away and she can see the man who anchors Steve, who helped him become the man he is today. "Maybe he needs you to take things out of his hands for once," Bucky says. "He's making all these life and death decisions for everyone else, so you take care of everything else."

It's only later, when she's reminding herself to be annoyed with him, that she realizes he was speaking from experience.

She watches them together after that, watches as Steve relaxes and becomes more himself in Bucky's presence than he's able to be when everyone else is expecting him to be Captain America. She hears them one afternoon, in a hidden corner of the rabbit warren of SSR offices, Bucky's voice low and urgent as he says, "Steve, you can't keep stringing her along. She's getting impatient. If you don't do something--"

"Bucky, my love life, or sad lack thereof, is not more important than--"

"Jesus Christ, Steve, would you listen to yourself? Maybe you're invincible now, but the rest of us aren't. Any one of us could walk out of here this afternoon and be dead by sunset."

"Bucky--"

But Bucky doesn't let Steve get a word in edgewise. "She wants you and it's damn clear to anyone who knows you that you want her more than you've ever wanted anything."

"Not more than anything." There's something in Steve's tone she can't identify, a sadness or yearning to it that strikes a chord with Peggy.

Bucky's voice holds the same note when he says, "Steve. Steve. It's not the same thing. I never thought it was."

"If I'd lost you--But I didn't, Buck. You're here. And I can't, I can't make that choice."

And suddenly, she understands the problem, and the solution.

Peggy pushes her way around the corner, as impatient and forward as her mother ever despaired of her being, and she's sure Mum would be turning in her grave if she knew what Peggy's going to say next. Even she quails a little at her own boldness this time. But needs must, as the saying goes, and she's never had patience for dilly-dallying once a decision has been taken.

Steve and Bucky are standing closer than is perhaps wise, though they're so hidden back here behind cabinets of files and rows of empty shelves that once held office supplies. They turn shocked faces towards her and she makes a sharp, dismissive gesture with her hand.

"Don't you understand, Steve? You don't have to choose."

They blink at her in syncopation, first Steve and then Bucky, and while she expected Steve to blush, Bucky also turns an interesting shade of pink. It's a good look for him, she thinks, finding a surprising affection for him welling up inside her. Not the same as her feelings for Steve, but she doesn't think they could or even should be. This affection and attraction is enough.

"Peggy?" Steve says, all endearing abashed charm. "I don't think I understood what you meant?" His voice rises in question and then fades in confusion.

Bucky, of course, has already moved on from shocked to speculative. "I like the way you think, Agent Carter." He taps Steve's chest with the back of his hand. "You sure do know how to pick 'em, Steve. I'll say that for you."

"Gentlemen," she says, and it's perhaps the bravest thing she's ever done, "my quarters, nineteen hundred sharp."

"Yes, ma'am," they respond in unison, Steve snapping to attention and Bucky giving her a more leisurely salute.

Peggy spends the next few hours working, though she's not sure she's retained anything anyone has told her, and she hopes her notes are full of appropriate information, rather than doodles while her mind wandered over the possibilities of what will happen tonight. If anything happens. It's always possible nothing will, though in her experience that's the least likely outcome where Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are concerned.

She has a quick sponge bath and dabs a tiny amount of her precious supply of Chanel No. 5 behind her ears, over her heart, and on each wrist. She takes a moment to think, and then, with supreme confidence, behind her knees. She thinks about her only pair of silk stockings, guarded so preciously, and leaves them off. Less chance of ruining them this way.

At exactly nineteen hundred hours, someone taps out "Shave and a Haircut" on her door. She opens it to find both of them standing there, cleaned and pressed as schoolboys in their uniforms, shoes polished and not a hair out of place.

She stands, smoothing down the rough serge of her skirt, and betraying no sign of the butterflies which have suddenly taken up residence in her belly.

"Gentlemen," she says with a decisive nod. "Welcome."

They stand in the doorway for a moment, and then Steve moves forward, nervous smile on his face. "Hi."

Bucky follows him, nodding his head in greeting. "Agent Carter."

"Given the circumstances, I think we can dispense with titles, Sergeant Barnes."

"Maybe I like calling you Agent Carter," he says with a roguish grin and a wink, and then a grunt when Steve elbows him in the ribs.

"Behave, Bucky, or we won't let you play."

"I'm okay with watching," Bucky answers, giving them both a quick leer that dissolves into a fond smile at Steve. "I do love watching you blush."

Steve makes a strangled noise and yanks at his tie. "So, uh, how does this all work?"

Peggy's not certain herself, realizes she has only the one small cot and they're not small men.

"Why don't you kiss the lady?" Bucky says, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. "She's been waiting a long time for it."

Steve does what he says, takes the two steps across the room to her and presses his mouth to hers. His lips are warm and soft, and so are his hands, which come up to cradle her face gently. She opens her mouth, licks at the seam of his lips and coaxes them open. He gasps at the push of her tongue into his mouth and she's pleased to note he's brushed his teeth before she's beyond thinking of anything but the heat of his kiss. He's as solid as he looks, a wall of heat and muscle she melts against, even with the buttons and buckles of his uniform digging into her in odd places. She can feel the wet rush of desire between her thighs and squeezes them together, glad to have left off her stockings, to feel the warm slightly damp rub of her own skin.

She's warm and flustered when he lets her go, but she brushes her hair out of her eyes with aplomb and glances over at Bucky, who's watching with a yearning avidity that she can imagine on her own face when she looks at Steve.

"But not as long as Sergeant Barnes, I'll wager," she says, her voice a little thin and breathless.

Steve swings around to look at him, and his voice is rough, as well, when he says, "Bucky?"

Peggy's belly does a funny little flip at hearing him say Bucky's name in that tone, with her lipstick smeared on his lips. She pushes his shoulder, encouraging him to kiss Bucky the way he's just kissed her, and for once, Steve doesn't dig in his heels. He takes one step back and Bucky's right there to meet him, face tipped up (and she takes a moment to wonder if it's odd for him to look up at Steve; she'd had to adjust, and she'd known him a far shorter time) and mouth ready.

She's never seen two men kiss before, though she's heard whispers, and should word of this get out, she knows that even being Captain America's best friend won't save Bucky Barnes, and even Steve himself might come under fire. She vows she won't let that happen to either of them, that no harm will come to them because of her and what she's put into motion here tonight.

They break apart, breathing heavily, and Bucky's mouth is red and glistening. She wonders what he would look like in her lipstick, and then realizes she doesn't have to wonder, she can _know_. She steps between them, checking first with Steve to make sure it's all right with him, and then winds an arm around Bucky's neck to draw him down into a kiss. He's more assured than Steve, takes control of it right away, his tongue swirling around hers in a way that makes her toes curl.

Bucky pulls away just far enough to look at Steve over her shoulder, and she feels him reach out a hand. Steve takes it, lets himself be pulled into their circle of warmth, his mouth trailing heat down her neck and his hands gentle on her hips as Bucky starts to unbutton her blouse

They work well together, she knows this, but it's one thing to see it in the field, and another to be the subject of it in the bedroom. It's a bit of a blur--a wave of kisses and touches breaking over her as they turn her this way and that between them, Steve's hands on her breasts and Bucky's on her arse, and the soft wet sounds and choked-off grunts of two of them kissing around her.

It's easy to lose herself in between them, to let them slide her blouse down over her arms, skin goose-pimpling not just from the cool air, but from the touch of their hands and the brush of the soft silk against skin that suddenly seems to be nothing but live wires, crackling with electricity.

She helps divest Steve of his uniform, and finds Bucky's taken care of himself while they were busy. He gives her a sheepish shrug and grin, and directs them to her bed, Steve first and then Peggy on top of him. Bucky wedges himself next to them, clad only in his dogtags and a pair of regulation y-fronts.

Steve's hands shake when he palms her breasts, and but his mouth is sure and warm when he sucks on one peaked nipple. Bucky plays with the other one, and she squirms in Steve's lap, hungry ache between her legs almost too much to bear already, and they've only just begun.

Bucky's grin is knowing this time as he curls a finger up inside her and feels how wet she is. He brings his finger to his mouth and sucks it between swollen red lips and she and Steve both gasp. He touches her again, and this time brings his hand up to Steve's mouth, and Steve licks the wetness there greedily.

"Good lord," Peggy murmurs faintly, squirming some more.

"Oh, god, Peggy," Steve groans, and Peggy can feel how hard and ready he is for her, for them.

Bucky pulls a rubber from one of their pockets and she helps him roll it onto Steve's cock. Steve shivers beneath them, his whole body flushed and sheened with sweat.

"Ladies first," Bucky says, "but then I'm gonna lick every inch of you, Rogers, and maybe bite a spot or two."

Steve reaches up and cups Bucky's face, draws him down for a kiss, and then turns his gaze to Peggy. She raises herself up on her knees and sinks down onto him, closing her eyes and arching in pleasure at the stretch of it, the feel of him filling her up. She moans softly and opens her eyes to see them both staring at her with something reverent in their eyes. She smiles and touches Bucky's face in the same place Steve had, and he presses a kiss to her palm.

Peggy rides Steve slowly at first, letting him get used to the sensation, and enjoying the gasps and moans she draws from him as she tightens around him. Bucky presses kisses to Steve's jaw and throat and murmurs encouragement so filthy that it makes Peggy blush and she's the one shamelessly astride Captain America at the moment. He leans forward to press his mouth to the spot where she and Steve are joined, his tongue hot over her mound and her clit and she almost loses control. He looks up and gives her another one of his grins, this one smug; she'll have to compare notes with Steve later to catalogue them all.

"Like this," Bucky says, taking Steve's hand and fingering her clit with it. Her breath is coming in short stutters, and she's so close to coming now that she's sure it must show on her face. Steve's got his lower lip caught between his teeth and his gaze moves between her and Bucky, as if he's trying to imprint it all on his memory. She wonders if he'll draw this later, and finds herself hoping he does. Then Bucky says, "Come on, Steve, come for Peggy."

That's all it takes to bring Steve off, his hips slamming up into hers and his hands tightening on her hips just hard enough to hurt. She'll press the bruises later and enjoy the tingle between her legs at the memory.

"That's good," Bucky murmurs, "just like that." His thumb flicks lightly at Peggy's clit and she finds herself coming as well, the rough pleasure of it overwhelming her body like a tidal wave.

She slumps forward onto Steve's heaving chest, traces his pectoral muscles in fond, fuzzy fascination while she rides out the deep pulses of her climax.

Steve turns a beaming smile on Bucky and says, "What about you, pal?"

"I'm okay," Bucky says, and when Peggy looks, she sees that he's got himself off. She reaches over, runs her fingers through the stickiness on his belly and then licks her fingers, the way he had early. He drops his head down onto Steve's shoulder and groans. "You're gonna have to give me a few minutes before round two, okay? I'm not a super soldier like Captain America here."

"We've got time," Steve says.

And they do, Peggy thinks. They're going to win this war, and then they'll have all the time in the world.

end

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Three Body Problem (the amazing grace remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1578938) by [Sholio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio)
  * [[Podfic] A Kind of Grace That Shades Everything](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5668114) by [RsCreighton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RsCreighton/pseuds/RsCreighton)




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